I come from a little town called Kendal, which nestles among the hills to the south of England's Lake District. I haven't lived there for 37 years, but I still think of Kendal as home. Kendal has been called "The Auld Grey Town" since time out of mind!

Visitors to the Auld Grey Town

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Rainy days and Tuesdays always get me!

Absolutely pouring down today. Drenching. Still, it doesn't put Jasper the Loony Spaniel off his stride. I have no idea why he was limping on Sunday, probably just being mardy. By Monday he was ready for a walk so we went up to the park, over the hill and down into Glossop and then home along Dinting Road. About 90 minutes and very enjoyable, except the bit coming down Ashes Lane which must be close to 40 degrees, and on Monday it was quite icy. Still, we survived.

Today we just went a shortish walk again, along the Transpenine Trail to Padfield and back through the village, probably no more than 2 or three miles. I managed to fall over quite dramatically though. At one point on the trail there was a rainwater puddle across the entire track. I stepped into the puddle only to discover that the bottom of the puddle was a sheet of ice, and down I went. My leg just isn't strong enough to stop me from falling in a situation like that. Still, I was already wet from the rain so I just got up and carried on. The walking probably kept my knee from going daft.

Jasper and I very nearly came to blows though. There is a very big field on the walk and in better weather the farmer keeps his sheep or cows and sometimes both in this field. Today, though, there was nothing, or so I thought. So I let jasper have a run because I thought we were far enough away from the main road. What I hadn't noticed, though, was a flock of Canada Geese roosting on the ground a couple of hundred yards away. Jasper had spotted them and played dumb. So when I let him off he ran after the geese as fast as his little legs would carry him. No way was he catching the geese, but he would not come back to me either. He is a stubborn little devil at times. At one point I thought that he had run away, but he was only way off in the distance having found a puddle of mud to jump in. When he eventually came back he was not a brown and white Spaniel, but a solid brown one. I have learned my lesson, he won't be running loose in that field again for a good long time.

I heard one of my favourite songs on the radio the other morning. Piaf singing Aznavour's song "Plus bleu de le bleu de tes yeux". One of these days I will tell how I came to fall in love with Piaf's singing, but not today. I really love songs because they are a poetry all of their own and, certainly with many songs, the words are not too difficult. I was looking at the lyrics of "Plus bleu" on an internet site and comparing what I thought it meant with what Google Translate threw up. As usual Google Translate is okay for giving you a general feeling for what something is about but naff all good at all for telling you a good translation.

Then I found a translation of the song done by Monique Adriaansen & Mel Priddle. Now, the words are not a straight translation but I actually like the way that they have put the song / poem together. I mean, if you take the first two verses of the original song, ...

More blue than the blue of your eyes
I see nothing better
Even the blue of the skies
Fairer than your golden hair
Cannot be imagined
Even the golden corn

That, by the way is me and my French / English Dictionary trying to work it out, but it just doesn't work in English.

Now here, is the transliteration done by Adriaansen & Priddle, and even though they have taken the words a bit of a way away from the original, I think it preserves the feeling of the original song. Well, that's what I think anyway, and you can disagree with me all you like, this is my blog after all.

A BLUE LIKE THE BLUE OF YOUR EYESA blue like the blue of your eyesWhen they're full of surpriseIsn't found in the skiesA cornfield in clear open airCouldn't hope to compareWith the gold of your hairA softening wind in JulyWould be foolish to tryTo compare with your sighThe strength of a storm on the seaCouldn't possibly beLike the strength of my loveA blue like the blue of your eyesIsn't found in the skiesOr the glow up aboveIf one day you decide to go your merry wayMy life would become filled with dismayFilled with dismayA sky full of rain wouldn't sayIt was nearly as greyAs the grey of the dayThe darkest of nights wouldn't dare to claimIt could compareWith my aching despairYou laugh at me when I'm like thisThen you softly dismissAll my fears with a kissMy fool of a heart then takes flightAlmost mad with delightLike a skylark aboveThe blue that I see in the skiesCan't compare with your eyesWhen their shining with love

I will happily admit that there are bits of the transliterated song that I think are weaker, but on the whole, I think that it is a good attempt, and I like it. Kind of reminds me of "When we walked in fields of gold", but that is probably only the reference to wheat that slips in there. It doesn't have quite the rhythm and cadence of the original French, but it's not bad. Not bad at all.

I went to my evening class on digital imaging, by the way. There were four students and the teacher, and I really enjoyed it. Nothing much to tell for the moment, but as we go along, I'll let you share some of the things that come out of this class. No pictures today, it was too wet and miserable to be bothered taking my camera out of my pocket, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.